Subspace - updated
Seeing certain Tories up close as I have over recent months has given me an almost irresistible itch to vote Labour at the forthcoming local elections. I never thought I’d ever say that ever again.
But then I read this and this (update: and this) from Dr Crippen (via Mr E).
‘And Jesus wept’ is the phrase I think we’re looking for. Could the Tories in their vilest, most wildest dreams of villainy and degradation really be any worse?
As in all these many, many instances of contempt and incompetence displayed by our current masters, it’s worth looking for a useful analogy. Just how to explain why the British public haven’t risen up and grabbed their torches and pitchforks? Why the lack of outrage?
And then it hits me. We’re in a sado-masochistic relationship. The Government is the ‘top’ and we’re the ‘bottom’. We’ve taken so much humiliation that we’ve entered ‘subspace‘, a trance-like state making us tolerant of almost any kind of punishment.
Does anyone remember the safeword?
Update: The MTAS system has now been suspended. But don’t be fooled into thinking the reason for doing so was the Government’s fault:
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said: “We have temporarily taken the MTAS website off-line and are investigating allegations that registered junior doctors could deliberately access each others messages.”
Look at the language. ‘Investigating’ ‘allegations’ ‘deliberately’. Those damned registered junior doctors. It’s good to know somebody’s on the ball, mind. Only the other day Tony Blair said he wouldn’t be ‘investigating’ ‘allegations’ that someone was ‘deliberately’ leaking information about anti-terrorism operations to the gutter press. If you’re a junior doctor desperate for a job, expect to be hunted down. If you’re a government adviser spewing to the tabloid, rest easy.
You see, the system wouldn’t need security if only those doctors would exercise some self-restraint and moral fibre. Why not disband the police and declare we expect people to not deliberately commit crimes? Or close the NHS and tell people we expect them not to deliberately get ill? The possibilities are endless and New Labour could pack it in and take up jobs to which they’d be more suited like shovelling shit in the Shetlands.
Posted on April 26th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
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Whilst I agree with your analysis and suspect it to be a sort of Stokholm syndrome I refuse to accept the description of “masters”.
They are not. They are managers. They are appointed by us, they work for us, and they are paid by us. When they are insubordinate, or refuse to follow instructions as in invading Iraq we can choose to sack them. The fact that we cannot immediately find an alternative, as we may not be able to find a better cleaning lady, is not to be taken as meaning that they are any good.
Referring to them as “masters” only encourages them and must not be repeated.
On 26 Apr 2007, at 6:28pm, Justin wrote:
As in all these many, many instances of contempt and incompetence displayed by our current masters, it’s worth looking for a useful analogy. Just how to explain why the British public haven’t risen up, grabbed their torches and pitchforks? Why the lack of outrage?
Safeword?
Is that like the “F” word?
I half watched the C4 prog tonight about our footprint/legacy in life, etc. I would like to know how much of my GDP goes in indirect/direct taxes. But nobody gives a fuck about that, I can brag in the pub about my property value……… greatest con ever.
[...] H-T: Chicken Yoghurt [...]
I’d disagree with your SM analogy Justin, if only because ’subspace’ implies that the ‘bottom’ is having so much fun that they may not be aware of any danger from themselves, let alone the ‘top’. (Maybe we’re having too much fun with property porn or whatever.) Somehow, I don’t think that’s what’s happening with either Blair/Labour or New Labour/the voters. The former seems to have something much closer to domestic violence about it: Blair keeps abusing the Labour party, which hasn’t yet developed the capacity/confidence to end the relationship, especially when Blair occasionally remembers to say nice things and give the party flowers and chocolate and remind it of the good times back in 1997. As for the latter, there is a safeword: it’s called a vote.
I’m actually almost glad I won’t get to vote in the next election, as I’m really afraid I would probably vote Tory. Anything has to be better than this.
Hey, what have the Shetlands done to deserve such a fate?
Just how to explain why the British public haven’t risen up and grabbed their torches and pitchforks? Why the lack of outrage?
It’s the old Brit habit, encapsulated in the restaurant scene when the wife is complaining bitterly about the soup and the husband bangs the table and says it’s outrageous and then the waiter comes by and asks how the meal is and they say: “Fine, thanks.”